Embossing is a technique that produces raised or depressed portions on a surface in accordance with the shape and contours of a desired pattern or design. With some prior embossing techniques, images or text are printed in ink on a media, such as paper. The media is ejected from the printing device and an embossing powder is applied and adheres to portions of the media where the ink remains wet. Thereafter, the media is heated to melt the powder and produce raised or “embossed” portions.
With some inkjet printers, it is often difficult to create a document where the ink remains wet long enough to proceed with embossing. It is also difficult to get consistent embossing results through a full range of color prints because the primary colored inks often dry at different rates, causing the powder to stick inconsistently.
Varieties of colored embossing powders are available to provide a desired color affect to a document being embossed. However, relying upon multi-colored powders to achieve desired color affects may be limiting in a number of circumstances. Among other things, the ability to achieve a desired affect could be substantially restricted by the unavailability of one or more colored powders. Further, such powders may have to be embossed separately to avoid undesirable mixing or blending of different colored powders.
Another disadvantage of some prior embossing techniques is their inability to emboss areas of a media where no visible ink has been applied.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.